Stephen King

Stephen King's The Shining traps a struggling family in a snowbound Colorado hotel and lets dread accumulate one quiet detail at a time. It's a haunted-house novel, but the real horror grows out of a marriage, an addiction, and a father coming apart while his gifted young son watches.

Stephen King's It is a sprawling horror epic about seven childhood friends who face a shapeshifting evil in the town of Derry, Maine, then get pulled back as adults to face it again. It's a coming-of-age story built around one of King's most enduring monsters, and the fear feels personal because the people do.